Help! my baby veiled chameleon is acting different

Bmaggio

Bmaggio

New Member
Chameleon Info:
  • My Chameleon - I have a 2 1/2 month old female veiled chameleon, i got her form work (petco) on 11/06/16
  • Handling - my husband and i handle her everyday, never have a problem, she doesn't acted stressed
  • Feeding - right now she only eats mealworms, we have tried crickets but she won't eat them.
  • Supplements - i dust the mealworms with repute calcium, i only think 4 total have been dusted
  • Watering - we have a fogger that we turn on for a couple minutes 2x daily, and we have a spray bottle we use to spray the leaves. i have yet to see her drink.
  • Fecal Description - yellow/white in color, has not been tested for parasites

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - all screen cage, 16"x16"x30"
  • Lighting - we have a double dome fixture, one is zoo med reptisun 5.0 UVB 13 watt tropical, the other is zoo med daylight blue, 60 w. my husband just recently purchased villa mini halogen bomb 50w night red. he didn't think the temp was staying high enough with the other too. her lights usually come on around 6:30am, and we turn the blue light and 5.0 UVB off around 8.. leaving the red light on for about 30 more minutes, then we turn it off.
  • Temperature - i have an electronic thermometer&humidity gauge that is in the middle of the cage. normal readsWhat temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
  • Humidity - we mist her cage at 7am and around 6pm when we are working, if we are off we mist throughout the day if the humidity level is low. i try to keep the humidity in the 50's... high has been 75. low was 32 (today when i got home), we have a fogger i use about 3 times a day, and run it for a couple minutes at a time, i also have a spray bottle to mist the leaves.
  • Plants - no live plants right now, will be getting some pothos plants soon
  • Placement - my cage is in my closet, its 8ft x 8ft, I've got her right in the middle against the wall, there is an even space between the floor and ceiling.
  • Location - We live in rock springs, WY

Current Problem - she normally seems pretty active, when we feed her she will eat 2-3 mealworms in the morning and then again at night, my husband slept in today and didn't turn any lights on in her cage or room until about 1pm. i got home around 4:30pm and she was running away from me in her cage, and would one eat 1 mealworm, and that was after i bugged her for 30 minutes. she normally comes willingly to my finger and will chill with me for a while, then i put her back in her cage. today she won't come near me, she has not hissed at me. her ribs are kind of showing a little bit, never seen them before. she is also staying darker green. she has white spots on her now.... they look like dry skin, like she is shedding, but she was just finished shedding a week ago.. I'm just worried about her, my husband thinks she is acting funny because he didn't have her lights on until 1pm.. please help!
 

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She could have just finished a shed. During a shed and sometimes a little bit after they get antsy and won't eat or socialize. For lights I recommend an automatic set up. Her urates sound dehydrated, and since your sleep schedule sounds a bit unpredictable I would definitely look into getting an automatic mister. Do you have only plain calcium? She needs calcium with d3 twice a month and a multivitamin twice a month with a plain calcium at every other feeding. She actually looks closer to four months, and so she should be upgraded to a larger cage soon. She also isn't eating enough for someone her age. Especially considering at 5 months females must have their feeders cut extremely, 8 feeders that equal up to large crickets every other day. You need to get her off the mealworms, they are nutritionally useless and can cause impaction. However just crickets is not an ok feeder amount either unless you have an amazing gutload. I prefer 6+ feeders on hand at all times, I raise that many on my own, while adding an extra four on a regular basis. However four feeders on a regular basis that are healthy feeders are fine, as long as you add occasionally two extra on a semi-regular basis. You also don't need any heat at night unless it gets below 50 degrees farehneit, however if you use a heat source at night, it has to be a ceramic heat emitter.
 
she is only 3 inches long.. not counting her tail... so i though she was younger... do you think i should maybe get her a laying bin right now? I'm just worried.. she didn't have ANY dry skin on her 12 hours ago... i feel like that was pretty quick.... and I've been trying to give her crickets since she came into petco, and she won't eat them... what else could i try?
 
No worries, babies at her age can easily shed within a couple hours and sometimes you will never know XD. It's always good to have a bin and substrate on hand that you will use for a laying bin that way you have a month or so to buy things slowly and not empty your pockets all at once. I would say the reason she is so small is poor supplementation and lack of good feeders, not just on your hands but most likely from where she came from. And if she is from a big box breeder she was likely very low on some essential vitamins as soon as she was laid in the egg form. How long do you just offer her crickets before you give in and give her mealworms? I would say at this stage in life she would not go more than a couple days without giving in and eating a cricket. Once they have the first taste they usually are pretty easy to convince to eat crickets. Just make sure to gutload the crickets well. Feeders I raise myself and personally endorse as great feeders to have around, isopods: amazing to gutload and their entire exoskeleton is pretty much mostly calcium, silkworms: amazing hydration when fed off and full of calcium, dubia roaches: great protein ratios, green banana roaches: great sized adults for small and large lizards, they flutter for catching chameleon's interests and are bright green when adults; stick insects: soft bodies and good seasonal enrichment feeders; super worms: good occasional feeders as they are easy to gutload and have a better shell to meat ratio and less fat compared to mealworms, also when you breed your own colony you have a lot more sizes available. Feeders I use when I can get a hold of them, hornworms, wax worms (only one- two a weeks depending on the reptile), wax worm moths, phoenix/calci/black soldier fly larvae (amazing source of natural calcium), black soldier flies, butter worms, blue bottle flies, I have done mantids before but I much prefer just to keep them as pets when I have them lol. That's pretty much it, I am sure I have gotten other feeders but they are much less regular and so are not worth mentioning.
 
i try every morning to give her crickets.. she doesn't take them.. but the second i offer her a mealworm she eats it immediately... ill keep trying, thank you for your help!
 
Bmaggio said:
i try every morning to give her crickets.. she doesn't take them.. but the second i offer her a mealworm she eats it immediately... ill keep trying, thank you for your help!
Click to expand...

Have you ever tried her on hornworms or silkworms? My veiled eats them like they're candy!
 
are the hornworms or silkworms nutritious? because someone said mealworms are nutritiously useless
 
Bmaggio said:
are the hornworms or silkworms nutritious? because someone said mealworms are nutritiously useless
Click to expand...

Mealworms are very different. As far as nutrition goes I've read books that said silkworms or an almost perfect feeder for chams. Hornworms aren't as good, but both options are much better than mealworms.
 
KeopiCat said:
Mealworms are very different. As far as nutrition goes I've read books that said silkworms or an almost perfect feeder for chams. Hornworms aren't as good, but both options are much better than mealworms.
Click to expand...

Oh, and this goes with anything your chameleon eats, but variety is key. Even though silkies are good, it's best to mix things up a little, so I'd keep trying crickets too.
 
so.. when it comes to daylight and night time..... how many hours would you guy suggest the lights being on? and same with no lights at night?
 
12 hours daylight is usually the norm, though ten hours works too depending on the time of year. Silkworms and hornworms cannot be offered as a main staple, I offer them as about 10-20% of the feeder diet. Which mean I feed about two appropriately size silkworms or one hornworm a feeding session. Then I pair it with some feeders with an exoskeleton. In order to get her off mealworms I highly recommend only offering her crickets for the next week. If she doesn't take to it by then, it's time to give a couple mealworms and possibly look into another feeder with an exoskeleton as a possibility. Crickets are usually easy to feed though once they have eaten them. I bet she starts eating them within two or three days if you offer nothing else.
 
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